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Values snowball for legendary Tucker Sno-Cats, latest toys of the super rich

Here's a fun-sounding vehicle perfect for the cold and snow that's currently gripping much of North America. Tucker — no, not that Tucker — just marked its 75th anniversary making the Sno-Cat, its orange-painted, four-tread snow vehicles that have inspired backcountry skiers, collectors — and increasingly, the super rich. Bloomberg in a recent story writes that demand for the Medford, Ore.-based company's products is soaring on demand from the wealthy, who need a way to get to their backcountry mountain retreats. They're also in demand from collectors and gearheads who also love snow, like two anonymous collectors who are believed to have amassed more than 200 vintage Sno-Cats. The value of vintage models has reportedly tripled in the past five years to well over $100,000 for a fully restored rig. Tucker Sno-Cat Corp. claims to be the world's oldest surviving snow vehicle manufacturer, launched by E.M. Tucker in 1942 out of a desire to design a vehicle for traveling over the kind of deep, soft snow found in the Rogue River Valley of his childhood. It was four Tucker Sno-Cat machines that helped English explorer Vivian Fuchs and his 12-man party make the first 2,158-mile overland crossing of Antarctica in 1957-58. While many of the company's competitors either shuttered or adapted to serving ski resorts with wider, heavier treads, Tucker has stuck to its formula of making lightweight vehicles to travel over deep snow. Many Tuckers use Chrysler's flat six-cylinder engine, or its Dodge Hemi V8 for larger Sno-Cats, mounted rear or centrally, with basic, no-frills aluminum cabins. Sno-Cats all have four articulating tracks that are independently sprung, powered and pivoted at the drive axle. Track options come in three different types: conventional steel grouser belt track, rubber-coated aluminum grouser belt track, and one-piece all-rubber track. Steering is hydraulically controlled by pivoting the front and rear axles for smooth movement over undulating terrain with minimal disturbance of the ground cover. The company today makes 75 to 100 Sno-Cats a year for customers including the U.S. military, oil-drilling crews in cold places like Alaska and North Dakota, and utilities. But demand is so high that it's launched a profitable service reselling and refurbishing old machines. E.M. Tucker's grandson, Jeff McNeil, now head of this division, scours Google Earth for abandoned Sno-Cats rusting in backyards that he might be able to acquire and fix up.

Junkyard Gem: 2006 Chrysler Sebring Touring Convertible

Quick, what was the cheapest new convertible Americans could buy in 2006? If you guessed "Chrysler PT Cruiser" ($19,890 MSRP) you're right, but the Pontiac Solstice cost just 25 additional bucks. After that came the likes of the Miata, Mustang, New Beetle, and so forth, all priced below $25,000 in their most affordable ragtop versions that year. The Chrysler Sebring was the cheapest midsize convertible in 2006, with a price starting at just $26,115 (about $39,005 in 2022 dollars), edging out the Toyota Camry Solara SE by 825 bucks. Here's one of those roomy-yet-reasonably-priced Chrysler convertibles, now absolutely used up and residing in a Colorado self-service wrecking yard. Chrysler sold Sebrings from the 1995 through 2010 model years, in three generations. The convertible version appeared early on, starting in 1996; it started out on the same platform as the now-long-forgotten "Cloud Cars" (Chrysler Cirrus, Plymouth Breeze, Dodge Stratus), then moved in 2007 to a Mitsubishi/DaimlerChrysler-developed platform that went under everything from Outlanders to Avengers. That makes today's Junkyard Gem one of the newest American members of the Cloud Car family tree, though GAZ built Sebring-derived Volga Sibers in Russia for a few more years. By the time it got to this place, it had become a total hooptie. Rattle-can paint, duct-tape trim repair, the works. Just 16 years old, but it's done. The baling-wire repair to the torn convertible top shows ingenuity on the part of a former owner. Plywood appears to be keeping the roof from collapsing. Because so many Sebrings were invisible fleet cars, it's easy to forget that a convertible even existed. In fact, the Sebring was the best-selling new convertible in America in the middle 2000s. When the 24 Hours of Lemons race series first went to Sebring International Raceway in 2014, I used my vast powers as Chief Justice of the Lemons Supreme Court to get entry fees waived for Chrysler Sebring race cars. We got two Sebrings that year, both convertibles. The base Sebrings for 2006 got the 2.4-liter straight-four out of the just-discontinued Neon, while the Touring, GTC, and Limited trim levels got this 200-horsepower DOHC V6 (originally developed for the Chrysler LH cars) displacing 2.7 liters. Early U.S.-market Sebrings could be purchased with five-speed manual transmissions, but a four-speed automatic was mandatory by the time this car was built.

Fiat Chrysler recalls 4.8 million U.S. vehicles for cruise control defect

WASHINGTON - Fiat Chrysler said on Friday it is recalling 4.8 million U.S. vehicles over a defect that could prevent drivers from deactivating cruise control and warned owners not to use the function until they get software upgrades. The Italian-American automaker said no injuries or crashes are related to the large recall campaign but said it had one report of a driver of a 2017 Dodge Journey rental car unable to deactivate the cruise control. Fiat Chrysler, which in 2015 was hit with penalties from U.S. regulators totaling $175 million for safety lapses, did not say how much the recalls would cost. The recall addresses what Fiat Chrysler called an "extremely rare" series of events that could lead to drivers being unable to cancel cruise control. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday it "strongly encourages vehicle owners to follow a warning" to stop using cruise control on the recalled vehicles until repaired. NHTSA said drivers could overpower the system by forcefully applying the brakes until the vehicle stopped. Fiat Chrysler also said the vehicle could be stopped by shifting into neutral and braking. Fiat Chrysler shares fell more than 2 percent in premarket trading in New York on the recall. Fiat Chrysler noted that at times cruise control systems automatically initiate acceleration to help vehicles maintain driver-selected speeds, including when going up an incline. If an acceleration occurs simultaneously with a short-circuit in a specific electrical network, a driver could be unable to deactivate the function. Fiat Chrysler said vehicles may be placed in park once stopped, at which point cruise-control is canceled. The recall involves a group of gasoline-powered vehicles with automatic transmissions from various model years built from 2014 through the 2019 model year. Most of the vehicles being recalled cover the 2014-2018 model years. Among the vehicles being recalled are the Chrysler 200, Chrysler 300, Chrysler Pacifica, Dodge Charger, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Journey, Dodge Durango, Jeep Cherokee, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Wrangler and Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickup trucks and Ram 3500/4500/5500 cab chassis trucks. Fiat Chrysler made the announcement going into the busy Memorial Day weekend, which traditionally kicks off the summer driving season.